The Possibility of International Prosecution of Individuals for Crime of Terrorism under International Law (original) (raw)

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the possibility of international prosecution of individuals for acts of terrorism –committed in peacetime –under international law. At the same time, it tries to answer whether there is an international crime of terrorism under international law. For this end, international treaties and jurisprudence of international courts as well as writings of scholars were analyzed. In the analysis, the paper finds out that, though acts of terrorism has long been criminalized by international law in a number of treaties, due to the opted enforcement mechanism –indirect or national prosecution, there is no clear legal ground for international prosecution of individuals. For this reason, there is an ongoing debate on the possibility of such prosecution. However, based on the recognition of some acts of terrorism as crime against humanity under the Statute of ICC, and on the emergence of terrorism as a distinct customary crime under jurisprudence of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, the paper argues that there is a promising development, that shows states consensus, both in treaty as well as in customary international law for an international prosecution of individuals. The paper contends that any argument that oppose such development is futile, seen in light of history of international criminal law, current practice of states in criminalization and prosecution of terrorism and the desire of states to end impunity of international terrorists. Thus, for an effective international prosecution of individuals, the paper urges for crystallization of such development with the adoption of internationally binding treaty or an extension of jurisdiction of ICC for international prosecution of individual terrorists.